Police: Officer Shot Boy in Wrist at Hawaii School

HONOLULU (AP) — A police officer shot a 17-year-old runaway in the wrist at a Hawaiii high school after the teen cut one officer with a knife and punched two others, authorities said.

State Department of Education spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz said the boy showed up Tuesday morning at Roosevelt High School. Officials there recognized him as a runaway who was not registered for classes, and called police.

Maj. Richard Robinson, commander of the Honolulu Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division, said the boy lunged at officers who arrived at the public high school near downtown Honolulu and tried to take him into custody.

Robinson said the teen attacked one of the officers with a knife, leaving him with a minor cut on his torso. He also hit two other officers, but neither suffered serious injuries, he said.

One of the officers then fired two shots, hitting the boy once in the wrist. The teen was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, Robinson said.

The shooting prompted a lockdown at Roosevelt, which has an enrollment of about 1,500.

Kealii Akiona-Soares, said he was in social studies class when he heard a faint shot at about 8:20 a.m.

Then a school bell sounded and students were kept in their classrooms, the 17-year-old junior said. He said his class continued with a politics lessons, and everyone kept mostly calm.

“I guess it happens a lot in mainland schools, so it’s not surprising,” Akiona-Soares said.